Super Bowl 52 is still over a week away, but there is plenty of action available at the sportsbooks to keep bettors engaged. The Super Bowl is a haven for prop bettors with odds available on every aspect of the game at most sportsbooks. Today we’ll look at a few pre-game props including the coin toss and the national anthem.
The coin toss is one of the most popular Super Bowl prop bets because it’s literally a 50-50 bet. What’s it going to be, heads or tails? If you don’t want to decide on your own, just take a quarter out of your pocket and toss it in the air. If you’re looking for the coin toss odds, both heads and tails pay out at -105.
Last year the coin toss was tails for the fourth year in a row. Before the four-year streak of tails, it was heads for five consecutive years. Overall in 51 Super Bowl coin tosses, we’ve had heads 24 times and tails 27.
Moving on to the national anthem props, this year the honor of singing The Star Spangled Banner goes to Pink. The most popular Super Bowl national anthem prop is how long it will take to sing the song. This year the prop total has been set at two minutes exactly, with the OVER favored at -140 and the UNDER at even money.
Last year Luke Bryan belted out the anthem in two minutes four seconds. A year before that Lady Gaga took two minutes nine seconds. Out of the last five Super Bowl anthems, four have topped the two-minute mark with Alicia Keys taking the longest at two minutes 35 seconds at Super Bowl 47.
However, if you go back further, singers used to get through the anthem much quicker. Prior to Super Bowl 47, five of the previous six anthems lasted under two minutes, with Billy Joel speeding through in a minute 30 seconds at Super Bowl 41.
Betting on the national anthem isn’t limited to how long it lasts from “O say can you see” to “the home of the brave.” You can also bet on the color of Pink’s hair, whether she’ll be airborne at any time during the song and if she’ll flub the song by forgetting or omitting a word.
For Pink’s hair color prop, there are five choices with the favorite being pink/red at +150. Also available are white/blond at +175, brown/black at +400, blue/purple at +500 and green at +500. With Pink being from Philadelphia and a professed Eagles fans, taking a chance on green might be worth it in case she decides to go with Eagles green.
For the airborne during the song prop, Yes is an underdog at +150 and No favored at -200. During a year in which respecting the anthem has become a national conversation, taking to the skies might not be a good idea so No could be the right bet.
For will Pink forget or omit a word, No is heavily favored at -500 and Yes is a +300 underdog. We’ve seen numerous national anthem screwups before (remember Christina Aguilera at Super Bowl 45) so at +300 taking a flier on Yes could be worth it.